Teaching Kids resource
Numbers
On the LearnEnglish Kids website you will find materials for practising numbers with all levels of young
learners. Activities range from simple matching and spelling exercises to stories and worksheets to
practise really big numbers. The topic also includes lots of fun games including a mind-reading number
game, a song to practise forming numbers and lots of maths activities. You can find the materials at
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/numbers
Easy activities for Very Young Learners
With learners who are just beginning to learn English numbers are an essential part of the curriculum. For
initial teaching you will find the Balloon Burst game useful. This practises the spellings of numbers 1 - 10.
Go to learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/balloon-burst/numbers-1-10. There are also a
number of useful worksheets to teach the numbers. These include Numbers 1 - 10 (very simple matching
and How many? exercise); a crossword on the Numbers 11 - 20 worksheet and matching and sequencing
activities i.e. what's the next number? on the worksheet for 20 -100. These are invaluable for very young
learners and are good reference tools to keep in children's files to check spellings of numbers. PLEASE
NOTE these worksheets are no longer available.
Number practice and maths
Most children enjoy doing simple maths sums and doing them in a foreign language seems to be more fun!
Practise some simple maths on the board and familiarise the students with the terminology of doing maths
in English e.g. plus, minus, equals. For easy practice you could use the number wordsearch with maths
clues. Go to learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/wordsearch/numbers. For practice with
harder sums you could try the gapfill game ‘Some simple sums', which practises numbers up to 100. Go
to learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/fill-the-gap/numbers
Developing reading skills
There are two stories which practise numbers at different levels of learner. For lower levels you could use
the story ‘I couldn't believe my eyes', a very simple story about the circus arriving in town, and ending with
a ‘trick question' for the children to type in their answer as a number. Go to
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/i-couldnt-believe-my-eyes. You could use the simple
follow-up worksheet to accompany this. The worksheet also has a ‘Magic number trick'. Read the
instructions with the class and ask them to think of their own number. Work through the instructions to see
if the trick works. After you have done this as a class activities, ask the students to try it in pairs. PLEASE
NOTE this worksheet is no longer available.
This also links in very nicely with the ‘Magic Monkey' game where the monkey can read your mind and tell
you what magic number you have thought of! A fun and motivating game! Go to
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/fun-games/magic-monkey
The second story ‘Record breakers' is for learners at a higher level. Very large numbers are practised in
the story as the girl tries to break lots of fun world records. You will need to practise very large numbers
before children read the story. Play the story at least twice. During the first listening ask them to remember
what the world records are. During the second listening and reading you could ask them to do the
matching exercise from the worksheet. The second part of this provides practice in reading and
recognising very large numbers. Go to learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/record-breakers
Teaching Kids resource
Extend this if you like with further pair work on numbers. Ask each child to write down five very large
numbers and then dictate them to his/her partner. This activity is quite fun and children enjoy testing out
their partners with the biggest number possible. This story also contains many superlative structures for
describing the world records. You could extend work on world records by using the Guinness World
records site at http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/. Note: links to external websites are live at the time
of writing. Please check the links before you use them with learners as some sites change and disappear
quickly. Please note that the British Council cannot be held responsible for external websites.
Using the Song
The topic also contains a song ‘In my plane', which shows children how to form the numbers. This is a very
useful activity for very young learners who are just learning to write and form letters and learn pencil
control. The song contains vocabulary such as down, across, straight line, round, circle. All of these items
are quite useful for teacher dictation activities. You could consolidate numbers by asking the children to
form the numbers from the instructions - use the worksheet for this. You can find the song at
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/my-plane
A challenge with numbers
At a more difficult level you could use the game ‘Amazing animal facts', which is basically a hangman
game on the numbers with clues to read about incredible information on animals. Go to
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/hangman/amazing-animals This game could be
exploited with further incredible facts about animals. The Guinness World Records site (see above) has a
really fun section on animals where you could get information, or if students have access to computers
they could write their own quiz questions for the class or other students. This would make an excellent end
of term quiz activity.
Activate the numbers
Finally, if your class needs livening up you could try using the Number quiz worksheet with them. You
could do the questions as a class survey or you could ask students to work in pairs to complete the
questions (the answers are all numbers). As the worksheet progresses questions become more ‘active',
until they meet questions such as ‘How many times can you jump up and down in a minute?'. Students
could try these activities out and time each other. You will need to make some space in the classroom and
perhaps move the furniture. A good fun way to get rid of all the kids' surplus energy! PLEASE NOTE this
worksheet is no longer available.
More number fun!
Have fun in your classes with number games. Apart from the traditional bingo games there are many
others which practise numbers. Try this simple game. Draw a circle on the board and write numbers
randomly inside it. Ask two students to come to the board. Give each one a piece of chalk or a pen. Shout
out a number. The first student to cross out the number gets a point. This is an age-old game which still
provides lots of fun and motivation - with no preparation for the teacher!
Contributed by
Sue Clarke